Chapter 25: Destination Derailment

Rosalina

The cosmic princess sat in her dank cell in Castle Dimentio, staring at the man holding her wand between his fingers; she had hoped he would overlook it and she could simply teleport out of captivity, but that hadn't been the case. Perhaps she had been too naive to hope he would overlook something that important. No matter the reason, her hope now rested in the hands of those she had seen wiped out in a heartbeat, and that did nothing to calm her quickly beating heart.

'Now, this shall be your new home until the worlds collapse and my reign is assured,' said the magician, Dimentio. He held her wand by its tip between his forefinger and thumb, moving it back and forth in a pendulum motion. He was mocking her. 'After that...the Void will seal your fate once and for all.'

Rosalina's face didn't change; she just stared at him, half defiantly, half interested. She didn't really feel fear, not for herself. She was hundreds of years old, and still young. She would be young forever, until someone saw fit to end her game. She was afraid for everyone she had been forced to leave behind. The Mario Brothers, Peach, Bowser, all their friends...and the Lumas especially. 'Do you think you will hold me captive forever?' she asked him.

'That is exactly what I plan on doing.' Dimentio chuckled and tossed her wand into the air, catching it as it came down. 'Unfortunately I cannot kill you, as the magical aura that surrounds you repels me. Grambi knows why that is. Ah ha ha.' He spun the wand in his hand. 'You've really made my day, princess. A captive was just the kind of pick-me-up that I needed.' He slipped the wand under his motley poncho.

'Why do you hide your face behind a mask?' the woman asked. 'Do you have something to hide?'

'Actually I've become rather fond of this mask. It was given to me by a friend and I've kept to it ever sense, though perhaps throwing it away would have benefited me more.' He spun around, laughing quietly. 'Now make yourself at home princess, as this is going to be where you spend the remainder of your days until the worlds' ends.' He floated out of the room, closing the heavy door with a snap of his fingers.

It was only then did Rosalina allow the fatigue and worry to seep into her body. She collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily and fighting back tears. She hoped everyone was okay; she hadn't been able to aid the heroes when they needed it most, and guilt weighed heavily on her heart. And the Lumas...her babies...they were all alone in a comet that wouldn't fly through the starry sky without her. Soon the worry gave way to sadness and the sadness destroyed the last of her hopes. She had always promised herself, for the Lumas' sakes, that she would never bring herself to tears over anything. They needed her, and they needed her to be calm and composed, but for the first time since all those years ago, when she suffered the loss of her mother, Princess Rosalina cried like the entire world had ended.

And it was most likely going to.

Dimentio

Dimentio floated along the castle halls, doing aerial spins and flips, humming the song he had recently got stuck in his head—The Ultimate Show—smiling happily to himself. Things were finally going his way, and it felt so good.

He went into the stark black meeting room and landed on top of his personal pillar. He snapped his fingers. 'Doopliss!' he called. 'Grubba! Esmine! Valex!' He snapped again. 'Report to the meeting room at once.'

Five seconds later, they were all standing on their respective pillars. 'Howdy ho Master!' Grubba called. 'It's been a while since we all had ourselves a little ol' meetin' hasn't it?'

'Yeah, what he said,' Doopliss agreed. 'I've been bored as heck waiting for you to get back to us. All you do is talk with Esmine over there.' He smirked. 'Do you two have a little thing going on?'

'Oh Doopliss?' Esmine called. The Duplighost looked just before he realized he probably shouldn't, considering Esmine's power. However, what he saw wasn't the sweet face of a succubus working her magic, but a look from an absolutely livid woman that shot daggers right into his heart. 'Shut up,' she snarled. Doopliss shut up.

'Thank you Esmine,' Dimentio thanked. 'I'd have hated to clean up his remains if he'd have went on.' Doopliss shuddered. The jester turned his gaze upon them all. 'Now, I have two announcements to make. First of all, we have a new minion.' He snapped his fingers and the portly form of Midbus appeared on his own pillar. 'Meet Midbus, your new partner.'

'Hey!' Grubba exclaimed. 'Ain't he that feller from that group o' heroes?'

'The heck is HE doing here?' Doopliss spat.

'Yes yes, Midbus, meet your peers.' Dimentio did a flip and remained upside down. 'Our piggish friend here leads me to announcement number two. We have a prisoner who I have quietly tucked away in our cell.'

'You've captured one of the heroes?' Valex asked. 'That is certainly a victory!'

'Ah, that is incorrect, unfortunately. The person who was captured is a princess from the cosmos of the dimension our heroes call home. Her name is Rosalina. Feel free to go say hello, she'll be in our dungeon for the remainder of the Void's work.'

Esmine raised an eyebrow. 'You captured a princess? Why?'

'Because,' he answered with a small smile. 'She is one of the key powers to create the Purity Heart that will end us. If we do not keep her detained until our victory is assured it might mean the end of everything.'

'The end of your plans,' Doopliss agreed.

'The end of my ultra-buff bod,' Grubba added.

'And the end of a perfect world,' Esmine concluded.

'Master,' Valex interrupted. 'With all due respect...why keep her alive? Why not kill her?'

'Ah ha ha,' Dimentio laughed. 'Go ahead and try. The energy field that surrounds her will sap you of everything.' He shook his head. 'Only the Void can erase her. Killing her before that is possible, but it puts us and the entire dimension at risk. Captured as she is now, she is not a threat, but put her in danger and you might realize that she is more powerful than even she knows, with or without her wand.'

'Wand?' they all questioned.

'Yes.' Dimentio took out the wand and waved it, a few light sparks flashing from its star-shaped tip. 'Her wand, which allows her to utilize her power of light. If anything, agitating her when she doesn't have it will only cause chaos. That is not for her to do.' He grinned, sending shivers down them all save Valex. 'That is what we are here to do.' He laid down on his pillar top, stretching. 'Which, I might add, is why you are all here. I imagine that you are hungry for some stage time are you not?'

'YER DARN TOOTIN' I AM!' Grubba hooted. 'Jus' give the word n'all be on 'em all like a pack 'a crazed Chompers!'

'I'll give them all Underwhere!' Doopliss vowed.

'I will always be at your command,' Valex said firmly.

Dimentio looked at Esmine in such a way that it could be read only one way: This is your moment of redemption. A shadow passed her face and she nodded bitterly. 'I'll do whatever you ask Dimentio.' She clenched her fists. 'A perfect world is what awaits, and it won't make itself.'

'True as ever. I trust you all have been in top shape and have gotten used to your dark powers?'

Grubba and Doopliss gave affirmative answers. 'I haven't had much time to really practice, but I've really taken to it.' She grinned. 'Really.'

'You're a natural then? I suppose it's to be expected considering you're a demon.' He jumped up and did a flip in the air. 'Well then, the heroes have not been stopped, not by even a mere inch! They will be back in full force soon, but I have a plan. Esmine...' he looked hard into her eyes. 'Your job is the most important. Fail me...and the consequences will be...' He grinned. 'Positively demonic...'

Esmine took a step back and nodded nervously. 'I'm ready.'

'Good, good. The rest of you can leave while I brief Esmine on her mission. I shall call on your once the time arises.' They nodded and left.

'So...' the girl said. 'My job?'

Dimentio floated a short distance off his pillar and dropped to the floor. 'Yes,' he replied. 'Listen carefully.' He twirled Rosalina's wand in his hands. 'This is incredibly vital.'

Fawful

Fawful picked himself off the ground after taking a moment to rest. The battle had been so surprising that even though it had been short it had drained him. Everyone else though...he looked around the summit to all the bodies. Some were unconscious. The rest simply couldn't get up. All were very injured. Midbus...that traitor!

'I have fury!' he cried to the heavens. 'The pig who has fat puts the smelly cheese of rage in the stomach that is mine, but soon he will have dining on a twelve course meal of hurt, and I will have the munching on the tasty treats of vengeance! I HAVE FURY!' His voice echoed through the air and he stared up into the sky. The sight of the many stars calmed him slightly, allowing him to stay level-headed. He needed to help his friends.

As he took out his storage cube he started. There it was again: friends. It was so strange that he could call them all that. Maybe they were his friends. He looked at Mario and Luigi, his two most hated enemies, and that feeling disappeared. He could never call them friends. Allies yes, for now, but never friends.

He pressed a button and his holographic inventory list popped up. He poked the Ultra Shroom symbol with his finger and another "screen" came up asking how many he would like to deposit. He clicked "ALL." Every last Ultra Shroom he had was beamed into existence. Picking them all up he went around to those who were conscious, giving them the powerful healing items when they needed it. When that was done the ones who were healed went about trying to get the rest conscious again or just force-fed them the Shrooms. Even when their wounds were healed it took a while for them to regain mobility and more time still for them to be comfortable enough to walk around normally. Within a half an hour everyone was up and fully healed.

'Mamma mia...' both Bros. groaned. Mario stretched his back. 'That was...'

'Painful?' Luigi guessed.

'Agonizing?' Timpani gasped.

'A bloomin' load o' hurt?' O'Chunks added.

'Cheap,' Mario answered. 'Midbus betrayed us!'

'WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON THAT GUY HE IS GOING TO KNOW THE WRATH OF BOWSER!' the Koopa King roared. 'HOW DARE HE BETRAY ME?' He turned to Fawful. 'What about YOU?' he accused. 'You're his master or whatever, I think you're in league with Dimentio too.'

Fawful glared at him. 'Cease your ramblings of stupidity, fink-rat!' the Bean spat. 'Midbus is not being the toady of mine!' He stomped his foot. 'FURY!'

'Listen!' Mario shouted. 'We can't fight. We just can't. The last time we fought Nastasia...' He clenched his fists. 'Nastasia died. As much as we all have different personalities, as much as some of us may be heroes, some villains, and some indifferent, we can't fight. All that ever does is hurt people. Understand?' Bowser just grunted. 'Grambi damn it all!' he screamed, turning on Bowser, anger in his eyes. 'Why don't you understand that apologizing or agreeing with me doesn't make you any less of a person or any less fearsome of a villain? You're on our team and you're going to stop with all of this! Every single time I've ever had to work with you it's been utter Underwhere!'

'Hey listen Tubby!' Bowser bellowed. 'I don't have to do anything you tell me to!'

'Yes you do!' Mario countered. 'If Dimentio finds you alone he'll kill you! You're one of the four Heroes of Prophecy, he'll never let you live!'

'Since when do you care about me?' the Koopa snarled. 'All you've ever done to me is kick my butt every time I try to get to know the princess!'

'GET TO KNOW HER?' the plumber sputtered in disbelief. 'You kidnap her and harm innocents!'

'Yeah, well so what?'

'So...SO WHAT?'

'Mario!' Peach cried. 'Bowser, stop this fighting! Please!' They didn't hear her.

They didn't have to, because six spider legs wrapped around Bowser's body and Mimi got right up in his face while Blumiere grabbed Mario by the collar and hoisted the short man up. 'YOU STUPIDHEADS!' Mimi screamed, tears running down from her eyes. Her True Mimi form was only half done, making a strange and creepy hybrid between a sweet girl and a horrifying giant spider. Her head was tilted 90 degrees to the side with her spider legs protruding from the neck in an awkward fashion. 'NASSY'S DEAD AND DIMENTIO'S LOOSE AND ALL YOU'RE DOING IS FIGHTING?'

Mario stared at Blumiere, who was holding him up by the collar of his shirt, with a steely look on his face. The dark man let him down. 'Mario,' he whispered. 'You need to show more restraint. Bowser isn't worth this.'

Mario sighed and nodded. 'You're right...I don't know what happened.'

'IF YOU DON'T SAY YOU'RE SORRY RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO TEAR YOUR STUPID HEAD OFF!' the spider-girl continued to shriek.

'OKAY OKAY!' Bowser roared. 'I'M SORRY I'M SORRY!'

'Mimi, let him go please,' Blumiere commanded.

She screamed at the Koopa a bit more before disappearing in a puff of purple smoke and reappearing as her normal form, still crying. Fawful was cowering near the edge of the summit having not been prepared for Mimi's transformation. Bowser had smoke issuing from his nostrils, seething. 'Bowser...' Peach whispered. 'Why? Why all this anger?'

'I hate him,' Bowser grunted loudly. Mario sighed.

'Bowser, please look at me. No,' she said. 'Really look at me. Into my eyes.' Bowser did, and his face softened. 'Please answer me again...why Bowser?'

'I...' Fawful, whose eyes had been focussed on Mimi, was looking at Bowser. His normally gruff and almost bratty demeanour had completely deteriorated under Peach's gaze. 'Well...he beats me up all the time and stops my evil plans!'

'Mario is willing to put those past fights behind him to work with you Bowser,' Peach told him, her voice calm and soft. 'He feels the same way towards you normally. After all...you kidnap me a lot.'

'But that's because...' His face turned a shade of red. 'Well, because...'

A small smile formed on the princess' face. 'Yes?'

'Well, I kinda...think you're awesome,' he groaned.

'Teehee,' Peach laughed. 'Have you ever thought about trying to just tell me that? You don't have to kidnap me and hurt people. That hurts me too. That's also why Mario and I are...well, um, why we're such close friends.' She laughed nervously. 'He saves me from you. Isn't that ironic? You're trying to make me love you, and it's making me love someone else.'

'That sucks...' the Koopa grumbled.

'The Koopas have been the instigators in all the Mushroom Kingdom's past wars. Maybe it's just in your blood. For some reason I highly doubt you'll stop kidnapping me after this. You'll keep coming back, won't you?'

'Yeah, maybe...'

'You're thinking right now would be a great time to kidnap me, aren't you?'

'How could you know that?' Bowser cried.

'Because I've been kidnapped by you a million times Bowser, it's never-ending!' She laughed. 'Just remember: Mario's willing to put your past behind you. Are you?'

Bowser looked up at Mario and back down to Peach. 'I guess...just this once though!' he growled at Peach's kind look. 'I'm not helping him forever, he's my enemy! THAT'S why I kidnap you, so I can ground him into a plumber SMEAR!'

'You are unbelievable,' Peach groaned, glaring at him. After a few seconds she broke into light laughter. 'But I guess that'll never change.'

'Are you two done?' Mario asked bluntly. 'We've got to get to Merlon, we've wasted enough time.'

'Hey, shut—' The king cut himself off as Peach put a pleading hand on his shoulder. 'Uh...sure, let's go.'

Mario stopped and looked behind him at Bowser, a surprised look on his face. 'Um...okay then. Let's go to Merlon.'

Mario knocked on the door.

'Merlon is out!' the fortune teller shouted.

'Merlon, enough,' Mario sighed. 'You know it's us.'

The door opened. 'Yes yes,' Merlon said absentmindedly, letting them in. 'Yes, it's you. Of course.' He moved up to the chair he sat in to do his readings, fiddling with his thumbs awkwardly. 'Have a seat have a seat...' He adjusted his robe. 'Now, hm, what was I...?'

'Are you all right?' Mimi asked him. 'You seem kinda...nervous.'

'Hm? Oh! Well, I uh, ahem!' He cleared his throat. 'A, um, lovely lady recently came to visit so I'm a little, er, flustered.'

'Oh.' Mario looked at him sceptically. 'Well...hope you aren't too flustered to tell us our next objective.'

'Of course not!' Merlon said. He looked into his crystal ball once again, trying to probe its secrets, trying to find the heroes' next destination. 'Ah!' he exclaimed.

'What? What is it Merlon?' Luigi demanded. 'Where is it? Oooh I hope it's not too scary...'

'Well, on the contrary, it's—' He cut himself off.

'It's where?' Bowser roared impatiently.

'Well, erm...it is...that is to say...'

'Have spit!' Fawful snapped.

'Yeah, spit it out Merlon!' Mimi added for the sake of clarity.

'It's in Nautoville!' the sage blurted out.

'...Nautoville?' they all asked.

'A city,' Merlon sighed. 'Quite far from here. The only way to access it is by train. Excess Railways has a new station here in Toad Town.'

'It does?' Mario raised an eyebrow.

'Indeed. Toad Town's local train shut down some time ago and those managing the Excess Express decided it would help sales if they began expanding their stations.'

'Oh. So how long away is Nautoville?'

'Erm...' Merlon twiddled his thumbs again. 'Three days by train.'

'Th...three days?' the red plumber exclaimed. 'No, that can't be right, it can't!'

'Unfortunately—'

'We don't have three days Merlon!' Blumiere shouted. As if to further support his point, lightning crackled outside, yet the day was perfectly clear; the Void had grown to an unimaginable size, yet still the Mushroom World survived. Fawful didn't know how many dimensions close to the centre had met their ends, but he didn't want to think about it. As the Void loomed ever closer in the skies, Fawful's heart began to pound.

'The end is near...' the Chaos Heart whispered. The Bean boy forced himself to remain composed as his heart throbbed; how much had the veins grown since he'd last looked at them?

'That is your only means of transport!' Merlon yelled. 'If you do not take that, you will have to walk! The world will be destroyed before you reach halfway!'

There was a moment of tense silence before anyone spoke. Mario took his Excess Express train ticket out of his pocket. 'This thing probably cost enough to cover two each of us, so I think it'll work.' He turned around. 'Time to go. Thank you for the guidance Merlon.' Before he reached the door he turned around. 'Wait a minute, where are Merlon and Nolrem?'

'Out.' Merlon said it as if it had been carefully rehearsed...or maybe Fawful's hearing was playing tricks on him.

'Out?' Mario questioned.

'Out.' Merlon nodded.

Mario took one last suspicious look before walking out the door.

Merlon

Toad Town's fortune teller slumped back in his chair, shaking with fear. 'Oh dear, I was not convincing enough...'

'You did fine,' came a woman's voice, deliberately sweet. The mysterious woman he had met earlier suddenly appeared from nowhere as if an invisible substance, which then turned black, had melted off of her. She had red hair and red eyes to match, dressed in a short black shorts and a matching top. It was adorned with white lace and had stitching up the back of her shirt; rows of "x"s. She otherwise wore nothing covering her legs, leaving them bare. Black, flat-toed shoes were on her feet. Her eyes glowed with a strange magnificence. Merlon didn't know why—he could think of no possible reason why this could be—but looking into her eyes just reduced him to jelly, something that he hadn't felt in many long years. He suddenly wanted to do anything to make her happy.

'I'd like you to do something for me Merlon...' she had said to him. 'You know Mario right, and his friends? Well...I'd like you to mislead them. Lead them away from their item, and I'll do the rest.' He hadn't wanted to at all, but...for this woman, he would do anything!

'I did w-well?' he stuttered.

'Yes...' She ran her fingers up his arm and pressed her hand to his chest, racking his body with uncontrollable shudders. 'You did so well I'm going to give you...a reward.'

'A...r-reward, miss?'

'Yes...I think you'll like it.'

Then she suddenly sank her teeth into his arm. He felt some sort of thick substance seep into his veins, and hot like melted metal. He screamed in terror; his arm was the first thing to lose feeling, then it travelled across his body. He could feel it paralyzing him, polluting his brain. He fell to the floor, all feeling in his body completely lost; his sense of smell gave out as his brain entered a low consciousness, then his sense of taste. The last thing he saw was the woman standing over him, wiping his blood off her mouth and spitting it onto the floor, then he lost sight too. His hearing disappeared last, the sound of the girl's laughter filling his ears as everything became nothingness. Merlon and Nolrem had fallen victim first; now the third sage and the last guide to the heroes was alone, not even alive unless you counted the fact that he could still think.

He had turned the heroes in the wrong direction. What was going to happen now...?